Many young Russians, whether politically active or indifferent, know little about the dissidents of the Soviet era. They don’t understand what motivated people of the time to speak out, why some dissidents decided to leave the country, or what was the significance of samizdat, the “self-published” writings and poetry that people passed around in secret at the time. The Voice of America launched a documentary series in 2013 featuring interviews, documents, and narration to tell the stories from this part of Russian history. more

Sergey Radchenko draws on Soviet and Russian documents from 1991-1993 to argue that the first North Korean crisis began partly as a result of the policy choices of key regional players. Radchenko investigates Russia’s policy towards North Korea during this period, and how this policy may have inadvertently complicated the situation on the Korean Peninsula. more

Moderated by the Executive Director of the National Security Archive, this panel will explore how scholarly research on Russia/the former Soviet Union & Central/Eastern Europe has changed over the last 25 years. What are the current challenges, successes, and failures in this rich area of interdisciplinary study?

Kate Brown, 2007 Kennan Institute Research Scholar, was recently awarded the 2014 Albert J. Beveridge Award for her book, Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters, which provides an account of the first two cities to produce plutonium, Richland, Washington and Ozersk, Russia, and how these idealistic communities helped conceal the fallout from the nuclear programs.

Many young Russians, whether politically active or indifferent, know little about the dissidents of the Soviet era. They don’t understand what motivated people of the time to speak out, why some dissidents decided to leave the country, or what was the significance of samizdat, the “self-published” writings and poetry that people passed around in secret at the time. The Voice of America launched a documentary series in 2013 featuring interviews, documents, and narration to tell the stories from this part of Russian history.

Join us for a discussion with Bernd Schaefer, Nate Jones, and Benjamin Fischer on the unprecedented significance of newly translated documents detailing Soviet KGB and Easter German Stasi cooperation under Project RYaN, a system for detecting signs of an impending western nuclear first strike.

Based on significant new international research, Domber reassesses the nature of Western influence on the end of the Cold War, highlighting where Soviet reforms created space for change in Eastern Europe and rejecting claims of any direct U.S. responsibility for the collapse of Communism.

Sergey Radchenko draws on Soviet and Russian documents from 1991-1993 to argue that the first North Korean crisis began partly as a result of the policy choices of key regional players. Radchenko investigates Russia’s policy towards North Korea during this period, and how this policy may have inadvertently complicated the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The onset of the Algerian War of Independence in November 1954 was an important development in the international history of the Cold War. Coming as it did on the heels of the end of the First Indochinese War, the Algerian conflict further emboldened national liberation forces throughout the colonial and semi-colonial world, a region of increasing importance to policymakers in Washington and Moscow. Pierre Asselin introduces documents from the Algerian National Archives on socialist bloc support for Algerian National Liberation Front.

Niu Jun introduces translations of thirty-five documents from the now closed Chinese Foreign Ministry Archive. The documents demonstrate the decisive role played by Sino-Soviet relation in shaping China-Eastern European relations and reflect the re-radicalization of Chinese foreign policy in the early 1960s.